1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sorter for sorting a plurality of currents, more particular, to an expandable current magnitude sorter for sorting a plurality of currents.
2. Description of Related Art
Sorting is the operation of arranging non-sequential data into sequential data. Such sorting operations have been widely used in data processing system in many fields. Currently, there are several types of sorting processes available, such as bubble sorting, shell sorting, fast sorting, etc. However, those processes are difficult to perform in integrated circuitry. The sorting operation is implemented essentially by utilizing software in computers. Therefore, the operational speed, real-time processing and application for the sorting operation are seriously limited.
The implementation of the sorting operation in hardware has been gradually developed. However, the existing sorting circuits are almost always digital sorting circuits. The structure of a digital sorting circuit is very complicated and the required sorting time is very long. Although the digital sorting circuit can also be used for analog signals, A/D and D/A converters are required, so that the structure of the circuit is even more complicated. In addition, errors or transformations may occur in the conversion between digital signals and analog signals.
Accordingly, an analog current sorting circuit is desired, thus, the present invention is designed for this purpose.